Producer: Bape Play (Bathing Ape)
Date Purchased: Early 2000’s
Price purchased: $30-50 each

Story:  These were a surprise birthday gift from my wife.  I was really into collecting vinyl figures and just started following the clothing brand “Bathing Ape” (Bape).  These are vinyl figures produced by Bape’s toy sub-label “Bape Play”.  I really loved the simplicity of the figures and “dumbed down” design (including the logos).  These are figures based on the brand’s founder and creative head, Nigo.  There’s also a Japanese popstar Cherie and a wrestler (not sure the name) who wrestled for another Bape sub project, “Bape Wrestling”.  I think there’s a few more wrestlers and other pop based characters out there as well that I’m missing.  Packaging was simple printed plastic bags.  

What was so awesome about this gift was that my wife secretly tracked them down online and bargained them down to awesome prices.  As a vinyl figure collector, my pattern is to sort of jump on the bandwagon.  I’m a little earlier than the masses, but not by much – catching on to something just as it’s hitting it big and I usually end up buying high.  I then tend to hold on to the figures until the popularity and price dies.  We always joke how I’m the collector of the family, but of all my collection (except for some Kaws figures), these purchases of my wife’s were probably one of the better investments where they were easily valued over $100 per figure at one point in time.  However, I fell back to my normal pattern and continued to hold on to the figures just as the Bathing Ape brand collapsed and Nigo left the company. I think the prices have come back down.